Vettel leads Abu Dhabi FP1

Sebastian Vettel laid down the gauntlet for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, by setting the fastest time in Friday Practice 1 today. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were 2nd and 3rd, followed by Mark Webber.

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest in FP1

The session began on a damp track, but it dried out throughout the day. However, the first half an hour was a waste for many, as the drivers sat in the garages waiting for the track to clear. In fact, it took until 50 minutes in for the fast laps to began to be set.

Robert Kubica was 5th, and Fernando Alonso 6th. The Mercedes and Sauber drivers filled the top 10.

Felipe Massa was 11th, and 2.4 seconds off the pace of the leaders. Having said that though, he was forced to abort one of his runs after a problem with the car’s telemetry data, meaning that the team wouldn’t have been able to fully collect data if he had continued.

Rubens Barrichello was 13th, despite stopping out on track. He still managed to beat his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by 1.2 seconds.

Timo Glock led the way at the back, just ahead of Jarno Trulli, who in turn was nearly a second faster than Lucas di Grassi. Bruno Senna beat Christian Klien by 7 tenths, while Fairuz Fauzy, who replaced Heikki Kovalainen for FP1, was last, and despite setting more laps than most of the new teams, was 8.9 seconds off the pace. However, it was reported that the Lotus was experiencing overheating problems.